Except, he doesn’t. The giant bastard throws me over his shoulder and races toward the service entrance. I’m bouncing on his broad shoulder and each time I land against him, it knocks the breath out of me. My hair’s falling out of the fancy updo and into my eyes, I push it back long enough to see one of my father’s men standing at the open window, shouting.
“How did they break through that bolted door so fast?” the giant grumbles.
“Aye, I locked it and shoved the couch in front of it,” his guard says sourly.
There’s a florist van in front of us and yet another dark-suited man whips open the back door. I yelp when the giant throws me in, where I land on a box of lilies. I manage to sit up just long enough to get knocked over again as the van takes off.
Staring up at the roof as the smell of crushed flowers nearly chokes me, I’m horrified to feel a laugh bubbling up. Stolen from my weddingto a monster, by a monstrously huge man who threatened to jam a needle in my eye.
The legendary bad luck of the Ivanov’s continues.
Chapter Two
In which this kidnapping is not going smoothly.
Cameron…
Checking my watch, I see that we’re on time. Two minutes ahead, in fact. “The jet’s fueled and ready?”
“Aye, already on the runway,” Hamish says. Studying his serious expression, I nod to myself. He’s a good man, hard-working. He’s not Ferr, but he’ll make an excellent second.
The image of Ferr’s broken, bloody body assaults me and my jaw tightens.
“Zip-tie the lass,” I call over my shoulder to Grant. I hear a low grunt and some cursing.
“Stop fightin’ me! Ya’ ain’t going anywhere-”
“I came with youublyudki,you bastards! You don’t have to tie me up. The giant up there said-”
With a sigh, I release my seatbelt and slide into the back. “Do you want me to bring out that needle?”
Her long, blonde hair is all over her face and she glares at me between the curls. “No! I’ve done what you asked, I didn’t fight! Don’t let this ape tie me up.”
Even in her torn wedding gown, stained with dirt and flower pollen, she’s a sight. Her furious eyes are the shade of the violets in my mother’s greenhouse, and her pretty pink mouth is twisted into a snarl.
“Don’t you honor your agreements, kidnapper?” she spat.
Breaking into laughter, I grab her wrists, holding her still as he zip-ties them together. She’s still kicking furiously and one of her high heels catches Grant in the shoulder.
“Those feckin’ death shoes of hers just drew blood,” he scowls, irritably examining the cut as he yanks them off her feet.
“Did the wee girl hurt you, big guy?” I laugh, “Finish the job.”
The van makes a sudden, violent swerve to the left and I hear angry horns around out. “Tire’s out, Boss!”
“And thank ye’ for that unnecessary update,” I grumbled, pulling my gun and returning to the passenger seat. “They could not have caught up with us.”
“No,” Hamish said, checking the road behind us. “It’s just a flat. How fecking stupid is that?”
“How close is our backup?”
He listened to his earpiece. “Three minutes, tops.”
“Tell ‘em togreas ort,hurry the feck up! A flat tire? How the hell does that happen?” I snap, looking over my shoulder to see that Grant has finally subdued the woman, even though she’s still writhing like an enraged eel. Putting my earpiece back in, I hear the increasingly agitated discussion.
“Aerial surveillance shows we’ve got men in pursuit,” the other driver says.
Checking my watch, I growl. We’re now two and a half minutes behind schedule. My missions are never behind. There are six different roads around that church. There’s no way they could have put together enough teams to track us that fast.
